Life is never easy, no matter how much we try to take shortcuts and escape the inevitable difficulties. After college is when life begins, when work becomes a necessity and we all begin to find a place to settle down. People respond differently to different situations. Some of us embrace the freedom and ability to earn money and spend it indiscriminately. Others collapse under the social pressures imposed on us. Christopher McCandless is a perfect example. Settling and raising a family, providing for that family, and creating a sustainable lifestyle are important, high-stress things that we all must address if we want to enjoy the good things in life. Chris abandoned him completely, gave away all his possessions; he even denied the help his parents were willing to give him. They say that nothing in life is free. This statement may be the truest statement I have ever read. No matter how much we want it, things in life cannot and do not come without a price, usually in the form of monetary consequences. Of course, sometimes it would be nice to leave, go to the desert and live off the land; carefree and without reason to worry. However, it is increasingly clear that such things are immature and pathetic attempts to replace a normal lifestyle. There are things you do with some friends to go on vacation and get away from reality for a week. It's not something you do to create your own way of life. It's pretty depressing, to me, when people act like they're elitist because they live in a yurt and grow their own vegetables. For the sake of not conforming to social norms; all for the sake of responding to the man. Apparently, being a constructive member of... middle of paper... and disconnecting from humanity is no way to prove a point. It's tempting to see Chris as a sensitive, romantic hero who responds to the majestic beauty that surrounds him and recoils from the harsh, meaningless norms of society. But if we don't like the way things are, shouldn't we try to change them? We remember the campaign slogans “Audacity of Hope” and “Yes, we can” of our current President. How this resonated across the nation. Breaking out of apathy, we realized we could make a change. Maybe we can still do it. In any case, I'm the kind of man who prefers to believe that we can and should try. Retreat is not an option. We enter the system to change it. We come into conformity to appreciate the benefits of the social and cultural gray area that unites us. And we work to improve those parts that make us less noble.